Community Building Tip: Network Alleys
For my current set of tips, I'm using the list "101 Small Ways You Can Improve Your City.
25. Network your alleys. Reinventing an alley can turn a dark, scary space into a vibrant place. An even better idea is to combine several alleys into a network of public spaces that stretch on for blocks. In Vancouver, the project More Awesome Now, is turning alleys (they call them laneways) into assets with basketball courts, foosball tables and shady cafes. And they’ll all be connected with a way-finding system using bright paint and eye-catching graphics.
This works only in places that have abandoned alleys from their original purpose, that of protected hidden transit for delivery and trash pickup. If you're still doing that, you absolutely don't want to attract people there. But once you dispense with that usage, the alleys are just a trouble magnet and need to be repurposed.
25. Network your alleys. Reinventing an alley can turn a dark, scary space into a vibrant place. An even better idea is to combine several alleys into a network of public spaces that stretch on for blocks. In Vancouver, the project More Awesome Now, is turning alleys (they call them laneways) into assets with basketball courts, foosball tables and shady cafes. And they’ll all be connected with a way-finding system using bright paint and eye-catching graphics.
This works only in places that have abandoned alleys from their original purpose, that of protected hidden transit for delivery and trash pickup. If you're still doing that, you absolutely don't want to attract people there. But once you dispense with that usage, the alleys are just a trouble magnet and need to be repurposed.